A June 26, 2026 filing in the Ninth Circuit puts a threshold issue front and center: whether this case should remain in the court of appeals at all. Respondent Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has filed a motion to dismiss in No. 25-8059, asking the court to terminate the proceeding before the merits are reached.

Although the docket…
Continue Reading PHMSA Pushes to End Ninth Circuit Challenge in Docket 25-8059

Twitch Interactive, Inc. has filed a new inter partes review petition at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, opening IPR2026-00397 on June 29, 2026. As of the initial docket entry, the proceeding is identified under Twitch’s name, but practitioners will want to watch closely for the patent owner, challenged patent number, and petition details as the Board record develops. View …
Continue Reading Twitch Launches PTAB Challenge in IPR2026-00397

A federal judge in Washington has preliminarily blocked the Defense Department from forcing New York Times reporters to be accompanied by escorts while they pursue their challenge to Pentagon press-access restrictions, a ruling that signals meaningful judicial skepticism toward the policy under the First Amendment.

The dispute, now pending as NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY et al v. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE …
Continue Reading Federal Judge Halts Pentagon Escort Policy for New York Times Reporters

In the latest episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Tom Mighell and I turned the spotlight inward to talk about the course I just finished teaching at the University of Michigan Law School called Legal Technology Literacy and Leadership. This course is considered a practical simulation class. It was built this past semester around a specific concept that I…
Continue Reading The 2026 Associate: Lessons from My Michigan Law Class

Last month, when Anthropic, developer of the popular AI assistant Claude, announced a major push into legal, much of the coverage in the media and the buzz on social media focused on what the announcement meant for law firms, in-house legal teams, and the legal tech ecosystem.
But the less talked about side of the story was potentially the…
Continue Reading On LawNext: Legal Research for Everyone: Inside the CourtListener-Claude Partnership

The Second Circuit has handed New York City and New York State a major appellate win, ruling that they may enforce measures that effectively bar fossil-fuel appliances in newly constructed buildings. The decision is important well beyond New York: it sharpens a growing disagreement among federal appeals courts over whether local and state building-electrification laws are preempted by federal energy-efficiency…
Continue Reading Second Circuit Backs New York’s Gas Ban in New Buildings, Deepening Circuit Split

The Justice Department announced June 30 that a Honduras-based Chinese national extradited from Guatemala has pleaded guilty in the United States to narcotics trafficking conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and providing material support to the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, or CJNG. The plea stands out because it brings together several enforcement themes that are increasingly important in federal criminal practice:…
Continue Reading DOJ Guilty Plea Highlights Narco-Terrorism, Money Laundering, and Extradition Risks

The SEC has imposed a $7.5 million penalty on Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., the Bank of America brokerage unit, over failures tied to suspicious activity reporting. The enforcement action centers on allegations that Merrill Lynch did not file a sufficient number of suspicious activity reports, or SARs, despite obligations designed to help detect potential money laundering and…
Continue Reading SEC Hits Merrill Lynch With $7.5 Million Penalty Over Suspicious Activity Reporting Lapses

When I wrote last week about BARBRI’s acquisition of Lega, I had not yet had the chance to speak with Lega founder Christian Lang, who was traveling. So I closed that post with what was admittedly conjecture on my part – that the large-language-model governance product that defined Lega when it launched in 2023 was now going away, in favor…
Continue Reading After the BARBRI Deal, Lega’s Christian Lang Says the Governance Platform Isn’t Going Away, But It Is Going to School